The Bravery were an American dance-rock band formed in New York City in 2003 that consisted of lead vocalist Sam Endicott, guitarist Michael Zakarin, keyboardist John Conway, bassist Mike Hindert and drummer Anthony Burulcich.
They released three studio albums: The Bravery (2005), The Sun and the Moon (2007) and Stir the Blood (2009). They also released a remixed edition of their second album called The Sun and the Moon Complete in 2008 and an Internet live album called Live at the Wiltern Theater in 2010. Their music was a synthesis of post-punk revival and 1980s-influenced new wave.
In April of 2014, Endicott revealed through The Bravery's website and
Facebook page, that all the members are taking part in separate avenues
of creative interests and that, for now, there are no plans for The
Bravery in the foreseeable future.[1]
Formation and rising fame (2003)
Frontman-songwriter Sam Endicott and keyboardist John Conway were classmates at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York.
As freshmen, their musical partnership began while playing local bars
in numerous recording projects, sometimes including future CSI: Miami star Jonathan Togo.
After graduating, Endicott and Conway moved to New York City where
Endicott switched from bass guitar to vocals and began writing music
that would later become "The Bravery".
Guitarist Michael Zakarin joined after answering an advert in a local
paper, and brought with him bassist Mike Hindert, a classmate of his
from Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Drummer Anthony Burulcich was living in Boston, Massachusetts where he had studied percussion at Berklee College of Music. After his sister's death, Burulcich moved back to his childhood home in Long Island New York to be with his family. On the day Burulcich was moving, while driving with his belongings in a U-Haul truck, Endicott called him. Endicott and Burulcich were introduced by mutual friends from the New York band Bishop Allen.
Though Burulcich is the official drummer for the band, many of the
drums on the debut album were recorded prior to Burulcich joining the
band, by Steven Lourie of Boston band Lincoln Conspiracy.
The band played their first gig at the Stinger Club in Brooklyn in
November 2003. To promote their local shows, they manufactured 1,000
posters and 3 song cd samplers containing the songs "An Honest Mistake",
"No Brakes" and "Public Service Announcement". Both items featured the
iconic “Phoenix” image by New York artist C. Finley.
The same artwork later became the cover of The Bravery’s debut album.
The band self promoted themselves by handing out CDs and postering the Lower East Side of Manhattan and Brooklyn. The band also promoted themselves on the internet and were one of the first bands on MySpace to have a profile. Their MySpace profile pointed to thebravery.com, where the same 3 songs were available as downloadable MP3s.[2]
Unconditional EP (2004)
After a few months of headlining and selling out small clubs, The Bravery booked a residency at the Lower East side club Arlene’s Grocery.
The Bravery played every Thursday at 10pm in May 2004. Every show sold
out and garnered the attention of many record labels. Around the same
time, the band received their first radio airplay on the show 'Alter
Ego' hosted by Paul Driscoll on Boston's WFNX. Aaron Axeleson at Live 105 in San Francisco and Zane Lowe at BBC Radio 1 in the UK, also downloaded the MP3 of "An Honest Mistake" from thebravery.com.
With three major radio stations around the world playing the MP3 of "An
Honest Mistake" and sold out shows in New York, The Bravery signed in
August 2004 to Island Def Jam in the United States and Loog Records in the UK.
For the month of November 2004, The Bravery moved to the Stoke Newington part of London. The band imported their residency idea to London playing every Thursday at The Metro Club in Soho.[3] The band toured the entire UK, France and the Netherlands between Thursdays. The band also opened shows for Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Razorlight.
Loog Records released the Unconditional EP,[4]
a limited edition 3 song EP on CD and 12” vinyl containing the songs
“Unconditional”, “No Brakes” and “Out of Line”. NME wrote,
“Unconditional already has the time-worn feel of an indie classic.” [3] The cover was taken from C. Finley’s oil on canvas named “Colab.” “Unconditional” received heavy airplay on Radio 1 and XFM London.
The Bravery played New Year's Eve of 2005 at the Motherfucker Party[5]
in New York City. Bassist Mike Hindert was almost arrested for
stripping naked and exposing his genitalia, displaying a painted smiley
face and the words “Happy New Year”.
The Village Voice proclaimed the Bravery to be "New York's Official Next Big Thing",[6] while MTV and Rolling Stone hailed them as an artist to watch. The band were also tipped in the BBC News website's Sound of 2005 poll as 2005's #1 most promising act.[7]
The Bravery (2005–06)
The Bravery’s first single "An Honest Mistake",
was released in the UK on February 28, 2005 and debuted at No. 7 on the
UK Singles Chart. The single reached # 12 on the US Modern Rock Chart.
The CD single contained the b-side “Hey Sunshiney Day.” The 7” Vinyl
contained the b-side “Hot Pursuit (Duet Version),” a duet with lead
singer Sam Endicott and Gillian Conway (sister of keyboard player John
Conway). The Bravery’s second single, "Fearless" was released in the UK on May 23, 2005. The single's slimline CD featured a cover of "An Cat Dubh" by U2 as the b-side. The b-side for the 7" vinyl was a cover of The Cars' "It's All I Can Do". The DVD single contained the Fearless Video as well as live footage of "No Brakes" recorded at club Koko in London on March 1, 2005. C. Finley’s
artwork entitled "Lady With A Blunt" was used as the cover art. The
"Unconditional" single was released in the UK on August 29, 2005. The
slimline CD single contained a Michael Brauer radio Mix as the A-side and a Benny Benassi
dance remix as the b-side. The remix reached the top 10 on the UK dance
charts. The Maxi single contained the b-sides "Oh, Glory" and "An
Honest Mistake" remix by Superdiscount. The CD was enhanced with the video for "Unconditional". "Phoenix Girl", an acrylic and graphite drawing on paper by C. Finley’s was used for the cover art.
The Bravery,
was released on March 14, 2005 in the UK (March 29, 2005 in the US). It
debuted No. 5 on the UK Album Chart and No. 15 on the Irish Chart. C.
Finley’s painting “Phoenix” was used as the cover art. The first 10,000
copies in the UK were made with a silver foil cover and a black embossed
Phoenix. The band was featured on the cover of the March 12th issue of NME. The album was released in Europe on April 4, 2005. The band was featured on the cover of the French music magazine Magic. Australia released the album on May 4. “An Honest Mistake” became a top ten hit on Triple J radio in Australia.
On May 28, 2005, The Bravery played three shows in one day taking a helicopter from Homelands festival in Winchester, to Birmingham for Duran Duran's concert at the Birmingham City
soccer ground, and then on to London. The Bravery’s last show of the
day was the first of three sold out headlining shows at the Astoria.[8] On June 14, 2005, The Bravery supported the opening night of U2’s European tour in Manchester, UK.[9]
During The Bravery’s opening song "Rites of Spring", the power failed
on stage. The band left the stage coming back 10 minutes later, only to
have the power shut off again. Bono wrote a letter to the band thanking them, stating "P.S. If you ever need anything, call Edge, Adam or Larry". The Bravery went on to support other European dates for U2 including a sold out 90,000 capacity Croke Park concert in Dublin on June 27.[10] The Bravery played at Glastonbury Festival on June 26, 2005. Their set was due to be aired live on BBC Three
in the daytime, but had to be shown well after the watershed, as bass
guitarist Mike Hindert stripped naked on stage due to the hot weather
and threw himself into the drumkit to end their set.[11] A photograph of Hindert’s buttocks on stage with 40,000 people in the distance was featured in the following issue of the NME and Blender Magazine, where Mike was quoted as saying "A bottle of Jager will usually do that to you. It wasn't the best showing of my life. I should get a girl to fluff me beforehand".[12] His nakedness is now immortalized on film in Julien Temple’s Glastonbury The Film.[13] Throughout 2005, The Bravery sold out headlining shows all over the world and played some of the largest festivals including SXSW, Coachella Music Festival, Glastonbury and Lollapalooza. In November and December 2005 and January through March 2006, the band was the supporting act for Depeche Mode on their Touring the Angel world tour. The tour traveled all over the US, UK and Europe.
The Sun and the Moon (2007–08)
US modern rock radio stations received the CD for The Bravery’s first single "Time Won't Let Me Go"
the same week as the band played in New York, Los Angeles, San
Francisco and the SXSW festival. The single reached the Alternative Top
Ten Hit in America.[14]
On May 22, 2007, The Bravery’s second album The Sun and the Moon
was released, debuting at No. 24 on the US album charts. Endicott
described the new album as a departure from the synth-heavy sound of
their debut. The cover and artwork are candid photographs taken by Jo
McCaughey and Drew King. Endicott and art designer Andy West took a
newsprint/collage approach to the album's layout. The Bravery's second
single "Believe"
reached No. 4 on the US Alternative Charts in April 2008, 11 months
after the original release of the album. "Believe" stayed at No. 4 for
six weeks, becoming the band's biggest radio hit to date.
Two weeks before the release, The Bravery played a number of special
shows in New York City, including two secret shows on May 8 at Arlene's Grocery, the very club that the band credits as the club where they were discovered.[15]
The Bravery toured extensively in the US, headlining dates until June.
The band headed to Europe on their own headlining tour, stopping to play
in Oxegen and T in the Park festivals. Between July and September, The Bravery supported Incubus on their outdoor amphitheatre summer tour. The band then supported The Smashing Pumpkins on their US theatre tour. In October, The Bravery headed to Mexico where they played Motorkr Festival in Mexico City.[16] They finished 2007 headlining more dates in the US.
iTunes
announced The Bravery as the first artist ever to pre-release a
different song every week prior to the album release. On February 19,
2008, the first single, a re-recording of "Believe" debuted on iTunes. A
song a week followed: "This Is Not the End" was released on February
26, "Bad Sun" on March 4 and "The Ocean" on March 11.
While on the road, The Bravery continued working on The Moon
recording in the back of their tour bus, in hotels and dressing rooms.
In December 2007, The Bravery headed back into their New York City home
studios to finish up their more raw and electronic version of the songs.
In January 2008, the band announced the new release of The Sun and the Moon Complete, a two-disc set featuring The Sun (the original Brendan O’Brien-produced 12 songs) and The Moon
(the same exact 12 songs, in the same order, but re-imagined and
re-worked by the band). It was released on March 18, 2008. A new album
cover and packaging accompany the two-disc set. The Bravery's single
"Believe" reached number four on the Modern Rock Charts during the week
of April 13, 2008. It is the highest chart position for the band in the
United States. "Believe" stayed at number 4 for six weeks. "Believe"
went on to become a certified gold single in the United States.
After a disagreement with the band's UK label, The Sun and The Moon
was never released in the UK. Endicott addressed the issue for the
first time in public during a feature in the November 4, 2009 issue of
the NME. "The big thing was the BBC counted us as the best new
band of the year and at that point our label lost its shit. We got off a
plane in London and there were billboards of us on the highway.
Suddenly we weren't this indie band, we were the Spice Girls!" The band
has since been in a legal battle with their UK label over the rights of The Sun and The Moon and the band's future releases.
Stir the Blood (2009)
Keyboardist John Conway posted on the band's blog that The Bravery
were in the studio with producer John Hill, who has previously worked
with Santigold and M.I.A., and that new tunes were "already taking shape".[citation needed]
Throughout summer 2009, The Bravery performed songs from their
forthcoming third studio album at various shows, including those whilst
supporting Green Day on their 21st Century Breakdown North American Tour. These include "Hatefuck" and "Red Hands and White Knuckles".
In a Billboard feature, Enidcott describes the new album as
"more like the first record (in 2005) in that there's a lot of
electronics on it, but it still sounds very human. It's also like the
first record in that it's a party album. It's uptempo, fun music,
although it does have a range of things. There are slower, dreamy songs,
and our bass player (Mike Hindert) wrote a song ('She Is So Bendable')
that sounds like a '50s ballad."[17]
The first single "Slow Poison"
debuted on September 8, 2009. Sam called into these morning shows to
debut The Bravery's new single: KROQ – Los Angeles, WRXP – New York,
WFNX – Boston, The End – Seattle, 91X – San Diego, The Edge – Phoenix.
The video for "Slow Poison" premiered on AOL Spinner Friday November 6,
2009. Another video directed by bass player Mike Hindert for the song
"Sugar Pill" was released on November 19, 2009.
On October 1, 2009, The Bravery leaked a video for their new song
"Hatefuck" via the band's MySpace page. The disturbing video was
directed by bass player Mike Hindert and depicts a sadomasochistic scene
where the female character wearing a gas mask cuts a vagina into the
male character using a knife. Mermaid dolls then enter into the orifice.
The Bravery headlined an entire North American tour prior to the Stir the Blood,
December 1, 2009 release. Fans were able to meet the band after
pre-ordering the album. An iTunes pre-order for the album began on
Tuesday, November 10. New song "I Am Your Skin" was made available to
download when pre-ordering the album.
Like The Sun and The Moon, Stir the Blood was not released in the UK due to a legal battle with the UK label.
Live at the Wiltern Theater (2010–11)
Live At The Wiltern Theater is the Bravery's first live album
and concert film. The iTunes exclusive was released on June 8, 2010 and
chronicles the Bravery's sold out performance at the Wiltern Theater in
Los Angeles from November 5, 2009. The digital only release features all
18 songs from the show including the band's hits, "An Honest Mistake",
"Believe", "Time Won't Let Me Go", "Unconditional", and "Slow Poison".
The official iTunes review states "it’s obvious that the NYC quintet has
a symbiotic relationship with their audience — the more the crowd
gives, the more the band delivers."[18]
On June 2, 2010 a brand new Bravery song entitled "Ours" was released on The Twilight Saga: Eclipse: Soundtrack through Atlantic Records. This was the first Bravery song to be released in the UK since their certified gold debut album in 2005.
On December 9, 2010 the band announced a UK tour and London residency
for February 2011. The band's social media sites stated "The group,
whose last UK album release was their Gold-selling, Top 5 debut in 2005,
have resolved a legal dispute with their former record label and will
go on to release a new single and album following a residency at
London’s Hoxton Bar and Kitchen and further UK shows."[19] At the SXSW 2011 The Bravery performed "Gin and Juice" with Dennis Quaid singing the vocals.
Post-break-up activities (2012–present)
Burulcich went on tour drumming with Morrissey from 2012-2013. In July 2013, Burulcich started playing drums for Weezer. Burulcich continued to play drums for them while drummer Patrick Wilson was on personal leave and was the touring drummer for the band White Sea in 2014. Burulcich is currently finishing an EP for his new band X My Heart and drums in Brian Bell's (Weezer) band TheRelationsip.
Mike Hindert has started the record label Merrifield Records and is
currently directing with his first feature length film. John Conway has
been busy at the vineyard crushing grapes and making wine with his
business, Conway Family Wines. Michael Zacharin is pursuing other
creative interests outside of music. Sam Endicott became lead vocalist
in the band The Mercy Beat and Burulcich plays drums for the band.[20]
Collaborations
While recording the Bravery's Stir The Blood album, Sam Endicott and John Hill co-wrote three songs for the Shakira album She Wolf, including the single "She Wolf"
and "Men In This Town". "She Wolf" peaked at No. 1 in Latin America,
No. 2 in Germany, Ireland, Italy, Estonia and Spain, No. 3 in
Switzerland and Austria, No. 4 in the UK, France and Greece, No. 5 in
Canada and Belgium, No. 6 in Finland, No. 9 in Japan as well as No. 11
in the US. The third song "Devoción" is featured on Shakira's 2010
Spanish album Sale El Sol. Bravery drummer Anthony Burulcich plays drums on Shakira's song "Tu Boca" on the album Sale El Sol.
Endicott, Hill and artist Santigold co-wrote "Monday Morning", a song for the new Christina Aguilera album Bionic. Dan Martin of the NME wrote in his album review of Bionic,
"Perhaps best of all is ‘Monday Morning'. Written with Santigold and
The Bravery’s Sam Endicott, it’s a Day-Glo disco jam that sounds like
Gwen Stefani doing ‘Borderline’."[21]
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